Mr. Cicilline (for himself, Ms. Adams, Mr. Aguilar, Ms. Bass, Mr. Becerra, Mr. Beyer, Mr. Blumenauer, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Brendan F. Boyle of Pennsylvania, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Ms. Brown of Florida, Ms. Brownley of California, Mrs. Capps, Mr. Capuano, Mr. Cárdenas, Mr. Carney, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mr. Cartwright, Ms. Judy Chu of California, Ms. Clark of Massachusetts, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Courtney, Mr. Crowley, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mrs. Davis of California, Ms. DeGette, Mr. Delaney, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. Deutch, Mr. Doggett, Mr. Michael F. Doyle of Pennsylvania, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Edwards, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Engel, Ms. Eshoo, Ms. Esty, Mr. Farr, Mr. Foster, Ms. Frankel of Florida, Ms. Fudge, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Grayson, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Gutiérrez, Ms. Hahn, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Higgins, Mr. Himes, Mr. Honda, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Huffman, Mr. Israel, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Jeffries, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Keating, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Langevin, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, Mrs. Lawrence, Ms. Lee, Mr. Levin, Mr. Ted Lieu of California, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Lowenthal, Mrs. Lowey, Ms. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Mr. Lynch, Mr. McDermott, Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, Ms. Matsui, Ms. McCollum, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Meeks, Ms. Meng, Ms. Moore, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Nadler, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Neal, Mr. Norcross, Ms. Norton, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Pascrell, Ms. Pingree, Ms. Plaskett, Mr. Pocan, Mr. Price of North Carolina, Mr. Quigley, Mr. Rangel, Miss Rice of New York, Mr. Richmond, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Mr. Ruppersberger, Mr. Rush, Mr. Sarbanes, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Sires, Ms. Slaughter, Ms. Speier, Mr. Swalwell of California, Mr. Takano, Mr. Tonko, Mrs. Torres, Ms. Tsongas, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Veasey, Ms. Velázquez, Mr. Vargas, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Wilson of Florida, and Mr. Yarmuth)

From an Illinois perspective, it’s worth noting a few of the Illinois Congressional delegation listed as sponsors and their nebulous reputations.

• Tammy Duckworth is running for US Senate against Mark Kirk this year.  She’s pretty hard left.
• Luis Gutierrez, aka Mr. Amnesty for all Illegal Aliens, especially Latinos.
• Robin Kelly, one of Bloomberg’s first purchased Congressmen.  Bloomberg helped secure her seat with about $2.2 million in ad buys and contributions.   When Michael Bloomberg calls Robin and tells her to jump, her only concerns are “How high and in which direction, Mr. Bloomberg?”
• Danny Davis, another fringe leftist Chicago Democrat, who was implicated in the Blagojevich scandal that landed Illinois’ former governor in prison.  Davis won’t disavow Blago, nor will his disavow campaign support from the murderous Gangster Disciples street gang leadership.   He also likes to take trips financed by others, including one to Sri Lanka purportedly financed by the Tamil Tigers.  From Time Magazine:  “The Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka are undoubtedly one of the most organized, effective and brutal terrorist groups in the world. They invented the suicide vest and, according to the FBI, are the only terrorist group to have assassinated two world leaders.”

HR-4269 not only bans scary guns and full-capacity magazines, it calls for immediate seizure and forfeiture of magazines, and delayed seizure and forfeiture of the firearms themselves. 

Grandfathered scary gun owners would be subject to a host of expensive rules, regulations and licensing, with an eye towards ending scary gun ownership as existing owners die off.  How kind of them, right?

The good news – candidly:

We’re not going to cry that the sky is falling or fund-raise among gun owners by falsely claiming that our gun rights are about to be lost unless you donate hundreds or thousands of dollars so we can lobby against these very bills here in Illinois and at the federal level.

That would be unethical as these bills are likely dead on arrival.

Gun control at the federal level is going nowhere.  Yes, even with the new House Speaker Paul Ryan who is facing a near-certain primary challenge.  The votes aren’t there in either the U.S. House or Senate to pass anything.  That, in fact, is why President Obama finds it necessary to “legislate” on guns by executive order fiat.

In Illinois, despite the Democrats’ super-majority in both legislative houses, gun owners enjoy a very narrow, albeit it “squishy” majority in both houses.   Our governor is modestly pro-gun.  He’s not a proven A+, but might as well be compared to our last three rabidly anti-gun governors, two of which have served (or are serving) time in federal prison since leaving office.

When it comes to guns, the Illinois legislature is divided more by geographical boundaries than by political party affiliation.  Downstate Democrats, especially from the more rural areas of the state, are staunchly pro-gun and will remain so if they hope to ever win re-election.  In fact, some of gun owners’ best friends in the Illinois General Assembly are Democrats, and without the support of downstate Democrats, we would have long ago lost semi-automatics, handguns, and about everything else.

What these bills mean…

These bills are doomed to fail, but they show us where the gun control champions losers want to go.   It shows us the depths and depravity of the other side.  They want to lead us down the road to gun bans, gun seizures, and confiscations, which would only embolden America’s violent criminal class.

Instead of embracing the measures to more fully take advantage of the ideals voiced in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, they seek to recreate past tyrannies.

For years, they’ve told us they don’t want to take our guns.

Remember this?

We’ve all heard them say, “We don’t want to take away guns.  We want to keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have them.”  What they don’t say is that they don’t think anyone should have guns.

Now, not only are they telling us where they want to go, but they are putting it into writing.

It’s absolutely a road map to what the gun grabbers really want.

This is why you need to be engaged

These bills are prime examples of why you need to be engaged.

You need to be a member of the National Rifle Association.

You need to belong to active, engaged state or local gun rights organizations like Guns Save Life.

If you’re an Illinois resident, you need to watch the Facebook Group Illinois Gun Lobby for news and legislative information.

You should visit Guns Save Life’s website regularly for critical legislative alerts, along with news, information and analysis.

You should attend local grassroots meetings to network with like-minded gun owners and stay informed on the latest news and information.  The great thing about these in-person meetings is that you can meet others, make great friends, and have your questions answered.

In Illinois, Guns Save Life has meetings in six cities each month:  Chicago, Champaign, Charleston, Peoria, Pontiac and Illinois’ capital city, Springfield.  Other groups have grassroots meetings as well, including the State Line Rifle Association, McHenry County Right-to-Carry Association, and others.

A modest investment of your time, energy and a few bucks to maintain valuable memberships will pay priceless rewards in terms of protecting and defending our rights for our children and their children.  In short, instead of manipulating people like the gun grabbers do, you’ll be helping those who aren’t informed better understand the truth so we will all be better, smarter citizens.

Larger “contributions” in time, energy and effort will yield still bigger results.

If you’re not engaged, then you’re not helping.  If you’re reading this, you’re probably engaged more than the average person, so this isn’t really addressed at you.